Bait cars make life difficult for car thieves

It’s not just that cars have become more difficult to steal. Thieves also have a bait car problem.

Over the last 10 years, police across the region have been deploying and adding to their fleets of cars that shut down and trap thieves inside when they’re stolen. Just last month, Arlington County police, which started their bait car program in 2002, made their 100th arrest. The department credits bait cars with helping cut car thefts by 56 percent since the program started. Convictions of thieves caught inside are running at 100 percent.